HUBZone Certification

The U.S. Small Business Administration will present How Small Businesses Can Gain a Competitive Advantage through HUBZone Certification, the first of its two-part webinar series on Dec. 3 at 2 p.m. EST. The second part will be presented on Dec.17 at 2 p.m. EST.

The mission of the SBA’s Historically Underutilized Business (HUB) Zone program is to promote job growth, capital investment, and economic development by providing contracting opportunities to small businesses located in economically distressed communities. The federal government has a mandated contracting goal to award three percent of federal contracts to HUBZone firms. In fiscal year 2012, HUBZone firms received $8.01 billion in federal contracts.

The two 45-minute webinars will help small business owners learn:

How to obtain and maintain the HUBZone certification;

How to form joint ventures;

How to survive HUBZone status protests to contracts;

How to compete for HUBZone contracts;

How to maintain good record keeping to ensure compliance in the program;

How affiliated businesses are evaluated, and

How to obtain HUBZone contracting requirements.

The Dec. 3rd webinar will explain how HUBZone areas are designated, how to maintain HUBZone certification after an area loses designation and regulatory requirements.